Just my experience and only after two sessions with the 2013 SB but it blows the 2012 SB away in ease of jumping, height and hang time in my opinion. All this with a lot less strength on bar inputs and quicker incremental response. I am anxious for the next good wind day to go out and have at it again. They have made some significant changes in wing shape contributing to this.

Tested the 2013 Switchblade, too and found less low end and boost than previously. I have 2008, 09,10,11 Switchblades and love them. This Year I got a 12 Meter Rebel and just love it. The bar feel is next to none and the kite has great low end.

I think Switchblade is turning faster in a closed arch, but boosting way less. It lost part of its power what is not bad at all for me. I have a crossbow 2010 for power. This year it is more wake.

I think white as color in a bar wont work well in dark colored sand or muddy/argile environment. That is my place.

Lines are heavier IMO. I doubt it is a good idea to change something that was great, it seems 2011 experience was not learned.

I tested a prototype before buying. The brand new arrived last monday, and if it proves different from prototype I'll tell you. My favorite kite till now for 2013 is the Drifter.Very horrified with Chaos, it has already a recall. Just pull the bar till the eject device and you will see lines forming a sinus, maybe a bridle problem...

1. You tested a prototype huh? Sure that wasn't just a production kite that you demo'ed at your local beach? Definitely never heard of Cab sending out their prototype kites for testing by the masses. But I don't know, maybe you're a bad-ass pro-rider whose feedback they're interested in designing into their kites?

2. Chaos recall? Really? You sure about that man?! "lines forming a sinus?" WTF?! Please point to a Cabrinha link that announces a recall.

3. Better lines a bad idea? WTF!? After some issues that Cab. had with their "new" lines stretching in 2011, they went back to their old lines for the second half of 2011 and 2012, but they were not nearly as beefy nor as solid as the new lines. It's a major upgrade dude!

4. Horrified? WTF!? Pretty strong word to be throwing around about a kite that's designed for freestyle riders when you aren't one. You yourself said you were a free-ride/wave kiter!

Everyone is entitled to their point of view, but when you're using up airtime spewing b.s. about shit you don't know about it just ain't cool, and it exposes you for the kook that you are. Talk about the shit you know, and have some humility about the rest man.

I've had about 12 sessions on my 11m 2013 SB and for the first few sessions I was not overly impressed mostly because of the lack of low end I was hoping for in light wind kite. I have changed my view quite a bit would now say it’s a really awesome all round kite. I'm 68kg and ride about 50% of the time in the waves on a strapless surfboard and the other 50% freeriding on a 132 TT.

The features I'm really impressed with so far are:- The new sprint valve, the Velcro cover does an amazing job of keeping the sand away from your valve and prevents any canopy wear when packing it away.- Relaunch is super quick even in light wind when I know I would usually be struggling.- Turning speed is fast when needed, if you pull down hard the kite turns on a dime, yet it is still stable enough to not be twitchy for small amounts of accidental bar input.- The bar pressure just gets lighter every year, but still not the lightest out there, I prefer to feel my kite so it has just enough for me. I've been flying it twice back to back with my 2011 nomad 7m and I can tell you that the bar pressure on the 11m SB is a lot lighter than the 7m nomad.- Wind range is pretty amazing as well for an 11m and I've flown it in winds from 10kn all the way up to 25kn. My initial idea was for the 11m SB to cover me from 8-15kn, I have a 9m nomad I use from 15-21kn, a 7m from 20-26kn and a 5m for 26kn+ but I have not used my 9m in the past two months so might just get rid of it. - The new lines are quite stiff and do not tangle, it takes under a minute to lay out my lines now. I've used my 2011 about 5 times since I got the 2013 and the 2011 lines take about five minutes to set up with all the tangles and twists I have to work out.- Hangtime is good and it brings you down really slowly for the most gentle landing I could expect.- Boost feels slightly slower and more controlled and gets you to the same height.- It's not too bad in the waves, I have not managed to back stall or overtake it yet but I have to concentrate more on what the kite is doing when riding waves with a SB.

Some negative points I can mention:- Lack of low end in lighter winds when compared to previous switchblades.- Those new red/black plastic grab things on the depower strap are annoying especially when self-landing using the IDS, the slack lines get tangled in them very easily and make launching again take longer as I have to undo the mess caused by the grab things eating the lines. I have also found it happen once or twice after a wipe-out if the lines get any slack in the water then relaunch is a bit of a problem. I preferred the old round grab balls which I never got the lines stuck in before.- The white bar has already got some black and brown marks on it as well as the white lines. I have not tried removing the marks yet but you do notice any marks a lot more on the white colour.

Too all you switchblade users. I have figured that to get the same low end on my 2013 as I had on my 2011 SB's I have to make an extra knot on the steering line pigtails. (above the three that are there originally) It is not to be used only to shorten the pigtail abit just under the webbing..

On the 2013 I have also started to use the "more power" option on the pigtail aswell since it does not backstall the kite while unhooked like the older versions.. I always just decided on using the middle knot earlier years but on the 2013 I have started to use the inner one alot more than before.. In a lightwindtest my 12 2013 kite can go upwind in the same conditions that my 2011 did with me being the same weight (puh..) and on a 6.1" surfboard..

I love them and working a bit with the pigtail (takes 2 minutes) really improves the low end!

Here is a summary post I put on my website about optimizing the lower end with the 2013 Switchblade and tuning bars in general. It includes the video embedded above.

Go out and try it at the low end on the 2013 Switchblade and see what you think. Cabrinha has come up with a tuning tip for folks looking to increase the lower end power of their 2013 Switchblade kite. It involves the placement of one more knot in the back bridle lines. It is described in detail in the video below:

I have done this for many years with some kites to improve the low end. This is just to shorten the bridle minutely, you don't attach the back kite lines to the new knot. Checkout the video for more details.

Most of us have noticed that our kite lines stretch through time. We do put a lot of load on them. Eventually this can "detune" your bar and impact your kite control inputs and kite response. Doing the procedure detailed above isn't sufficient by itself over time. Solution? Glad you asked, it is covered in another video:

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